For Moms in Finland, every day is Mother’s Day. A new report from the non-profit Save the Children says the Nordic nation is the best country on the globe for mothers to live.

As the Atlantic reports, the child advocacy group’s 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers report relied on five key metrics for its rankings: per capita income, lifetime risk of maternal death, mortality rate for children under 5, education levels, and the frequency of women in governmental positions of power. It also focused on what it calls the Birth Day index, which compares death rates for newborn babies in 186 countries. As the Atlantic points out, however, the report did not take into account happiness or where women are having the most children.

Scandinavia is definitely a good place to be a Mom: Sweden placed second, Norway third, and Denmark sixth. In fact, all but one of the top 10 countries where Moms are the safest are European, with Australia placing tenth. The ten unsafest places for mothers are all located in Central Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo ranking worst. An estimated 98% of newborn and 99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries where basic health care services are scarce.

The best news to emerge from the report is a dramatic decrease in maternal and child deaths overall. The annual number of children under age 5 who die each year dropped by more than 40%, from 12 million to 6.9 million, while the number of maternal deaths declined almost 50%, from 543,00 to 287,000, since 1990. An influx of community health workers has also helped countries like Tanzania and New Zealand to reduce infant morality rates.

In more sobering news, the study ranked the U.S. 30th overall in mother and child well-being, with the most newborn deaths in the industrialized world. Though industrialized countries make up only 1% of the world’s newborn deaths, the U.S. still has 50% more first-day deaths than all other industrialized countries combined. The report attributes this to premature births and a high rate of teen pregnancy, among other reasons.

Check out the top 10 best and worst countries for mothers below, and see the full report here.

Correction: The original version of this story featured an outdated map of Finland’s borders and sparked considerable debate about whether the country is actually part of Scandinavia. The updated version of this article now refers to Finland as a Nordic nation.

In 1917, Soviet Russia started murders and imprisonments based on "guilty by association" or because one belonged to a group.

In 1923, Soviet Union was the first country in Europe to open a concentration camp for civilians (Solovki Island, in White Sea, where a museum gives the details). The first country globally: Great Britain.

In 1933, Soviet Union already has killed "six million" people, in Ukrainian Holodomor, which was reported in at least one newspaper of that time.

In 1937-38, Soviet Union built the worst terror state in the history of mankind, often called "Stalin's purges" but more rightly, Stalin's terror.

It was Stalin, who was present at the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact meeting, smiling in photos, shaking hands with Ribbentrop, and toasting for Hitler (who apparently did not bother attending).

It was Soviet Union that actively seeked living space, as shown in occupation of the Baltic States, was against Finland, war against East Poland (and common victory parade _with_ the Nazis), and occupation of Bessarabia. These occupations also remained until 1991, and in Finland's case, even today.

When the Nazi Germany occupied Latvia, it planned to bring 167,000 Germans to live in Latvia, as a "living space" programme. But in real world, the Soviet Union did bring almost 1,000,000 Russians and other Slavs to live in Latvia, as a "living space" programme.

On 14 June, 1941, over 15,000 Latvian citizens were taken to Siberian labor/concentration camps. Among the 15,000+ victims: 1700 Latvian Jews.

Stalin's GULAG concentration camps were more common than those of the Nazis.

After WWII, it was Soviet Union that continued with GULAG-labor camps and when the world was in shock about the Holocaust against the Jews, what did Stalin decided to start in 1950? Yes, persecution of Jews.

Finland's legitimate borders remained the same from 1812 to 1944, except for Petsamo (today ethnically cleansed and Russified as Petchenga) which was added in 1920.

When Finland and Soviet Russia signed the agreement on official borders, in 1920, no changes occurred in the southern border line, ie. the Karelian border.

In 1932, another official agreement, now between Soviet Union and Finland, verified the 1920 agreement, as legal and valid.

What happened in 1939, was a criminal act by Josif Stalin. He was more or less hosting the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, in which all Finland, the Baltic states, and Eastern Poland and Bessarabia were "ceded" into the Soviet Union's "sphere of interest", totally illegally. This was done between Stalin and the Nazis, and old photos and documents show Stalin shaking hands (perhaps a Freemason handshake?) with Ribbentrop, and Stalin toasting for Hitler. THESE ARE FACTS, although happily forgotten by most people. (Date: 28 August 1939)

In 1940, Stalin demanded MORE territory, kind of "living space" for the Slavic superior race, from Finland, than his criminal gang, the "Red Army" had been able to occupy within legal territory of Finland.

What resulted, was an ethnic cleansing, which, by definition, is a crime against humanity, and which will always remain, until corrected.

Russia MUST return Finnish territory back Finland, unless it wants to be a criminal robber country, as it remains today.

And welcome to Finland of 2013. The new millennium has began and the big era of Google Maps could be an useful help in order to get some actual topographic information about our country. Read more and learn, please.

Sorry, but you need a correction to the correction, Finland is not a Scandinavian country, Norway definitely is. Pre-war borders also for Finland. (It would nice to have back my grandfather's family farm in Karelia though, even the dilapidated ruins)

Yes Fnland. And thank you very much. You finally put the perfectly correct borders for Finland! They are actually borders before 1939 and after that the Soviet Union ceded 45,000 km2 from the Finnish territory. But your borders are ok.

We should also remember that the USA never accepted the borders drawn according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 23.08.1939. So the borders are ok also for that reason. We can read the USA's opinion from Mr. Sumner Welles's statements, Kongress and Senate statements and also President Roosevelt statement.

Kindly remind the Finnish government also of the right borders. And do not forget that the USA gave to the Soviet Union Lend-lease aid which was about 11B Dollars. When you count it as a burden of current Finland on a GNP basis, you will get about 2,200B US Dollars! Quite a lot of that sum was also used against Finland.

I am taking the liberty to speak for the majority of my country (Finland), but before joining that you should understand a couple of things. 1) The areas of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were returned when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the area that belonged to Romania is now the independent state of Moldova. 2) Most people living in the formerly Finnish areas do not identify as Finns, nor do they speak Finnish as their native language. They are mostly Karelians and Russians, who speak Karelian or Russian. 3) Finland does not want the areas back and if Russia were to return them, Finland would probably not accept them. 4) Finns who support ideas like this are usually right wing extremists. Majority of Finns do not want the areas returned, nor do the majority of the people living in those areas want to join Finland.

I know you are just trying to be helpful, but sometimes that can be the worst thing to do, if you are not very familiar with the issue. In this case your support will only help the right wing extremists gain popularity.

@JoaoPeter I can see that you have not lived in Finland. It's my motherland. I know these matters well as your perhaps know the founding fathers of the USA and John Morton as one of them. Mr. Morton's roots were also in Finland - in Sweden at that time.

It's not speaking of great or Great Finland when wanting to have own territories back. Only if you support strongly violence and violent peace treaties, then you can accept that Pechenga, Karelia and some other territories, totally 45,000 km2, belong to Russia.

@veikkosaksi You make rest of us in Finland look bad with your retarded commentary. Finland is NOT part of Scandinavia, it's a geographical fact. We are however part of Fennoskandia, a bigger area with similiar name.

@FMSaigon Kindly read the Wikipedia article in all peace and look at the map. You are speaking of historical matters. Roughly 200 years ago Finland was a part of Sweden. After that it was part of Russia. From 1917 it has been independent and part of Scandinavia.

@IikkaVaartëla@JenniferMcIntosh For the majority? Maybe but that might be tight. There are many reasons why Finland should seek solution for return of Petsamo and Carelia. Petsamo is our key to Arctic Ocean and Carelia could be turned into joint economic area with Russia.

In the most commonly accepted international interpretation of the term, Finland indeed is normally considered a part of Scandinavia and the Finnic people of Scandinavia and Fennoscandia as Scandinavians. Please take the rest of my response in my comment above.

@JouniMinkkinen@IikkaVaartëla@JenniferMcIntosh It's not actually very tight. Even the highest numbers on polls about the subject, say that only about 30% of Finns would like Karelia to be a part of Finland, and it should be remembered that the number of people actually demanding Karelia to be returned is smaller than that. Of course in Carelia the support for joining Finland is even smaller.

Whether you are for it or against it, it should still be made clear, for any foreigners thinking about signing any petitions, that this is absolutely NOT a diplomatic issue between Finland and Russia. The official position of the Finnish government is that there is no territorial dispute, nor does it see any reason to start negotiations in the future.

@Summer16@veikkosaksi Yes, you are right. Relating to this issue it is not important if Finland is a Scandinavian country, Nordic country, EU country, WTO country, EC country … Best congratulations to Moms!

What ever stance one prefers to choose in these topics, Wikipedia should not be trusted too much as a good source. Wikipedia is a place where people group together, in attempts to embed various schools of thoughts in controversial issues. Accordingly, information on Wikipedia often gets distorted.

In reference to Scandinavia, please take the rest of my response in my other comments.

In Finnish schools they teach for us, that it is a common misunderstanding that Finland would be part of Scandinavia. But of course, Scandinavia is just a word, used to describe something, which countries belong to it, depends totally about the definition.

Scandinavian peninsula, includes Norway, Sweden, and very northern parts of Finland, so geographically can't say that Finland would be part of Scandinavia. Geographically, Finland is part of Fennoscandia.

Another definition is about cultures and languages. Finnish is Uralic language, while Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish as well as German and English are all Germanic languages. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are considered to be Scandinavian languages, north germanic languages.

The third relation could be culture. This is the only thing of these three, which could make Finland a Scandinavian country.

But by the official definition, as far as I understand, Finland is a Nordic Country in the first place, together with Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark. Scandinavian countries are then the ones with North Germanic languages, and countries that are fully on the Scandinavian peninsula, in which Finland does not belong.

I saw that you do not want to understand. If you happen - according to your name you should - understand and know that Finland became independent in 1917. After that it has been a flu Scandinavian country.

In principle it is not important, what is important is that Finland is no Russian country or part of Russian federation.